Not enough hours in the day.

So thanks to cousins Josh & Justin all the bulkhead is gone around the old half of the kitchen. I've got all the wall tile down, the floor tile is not coming out as easily.

It's pretty gutted at this point. Getting a variety of estimates. Currently look for hardwood floor installer, floor sander and re-finisher and buying/installing granite. I've got a few names for the floor work, but if you have any other suggestions, let me know.

I'm really searching for good prices on granite in western Pennsylvania. If anyone out there has recently had granite counter tops installed, I would appreciate any recommendation you can have. This is probably one of my hardest challenges in my budget. Please comment below or send me a message w/contacts. I'll post/share who I end up going with, happy to share in the deals I find.

Thanks!

Two Days, Eleven Hours and More than 700 miles...

The past two days have been a little hiatus from the Kitchen to take my youngest on a couple of college tours. But, even on the road the project is always on my mind. The night before we left I was browsing the internet for red oak solid hardwood flooring. I have a mixture of red, white & a little cocoa oak floors throughout the house, I've decided to have someone try and match it to finish out the kitchen. You'll remember I'm combining my prior dining room & kitchen into one larger kitchen. Back to the floor story. So I was looking all over the internet for best prices & there was this store called Menards that had a great price. I discounted it because I never heard of the store & it was't around the Pittsburgh area. On our great adventure we were traveling from Dayton to Toledo and I couldn't believe it when I saw this store right off of the highway. So, you know I pulled over and yes I bought the flooring, which made for an interesting ride home. The story gets better for my budget. Not only was this better than any price in Pittsburgh, but they were having a promotion where you could get an 11% rebate. Of course there was a catch, the rebate was a voucher for a future purchase. So I talked to the manager, told him I wasn't from the area, couldn't use the rebate & asked if he would give me the 11% off my bill and destroy the rebate, he said sure! The deal got even better when I found a faucet onsale for over $100 less than any place I could find online & I got another 11% off. See it never hurts to ask! I included a pic of the faucet below along with the coppper hammered apron sink I just got delivered, and yes, I talked to the rep when I ordered that offline, asked if there were any promotions going on & they gave me 15% their price, making the sink over $100 less than anywhere I could find it online... Let me know what you think of the faucet & sink, ok if you hate it don't tell me, lol :)  Also, as I'm typing this I'm wandering if I'm using than/then appropriately. One of my co-workers, Laura if you're reading this I'm referring to you, says it's her pet peeve when someone messes that up, & I always seem to. Feel free to correct me/educate me on that...  I'll stick to cooking.